The Merciful Crow

By: Margaret Owen

Narrated by: Amy Landon

Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Debut author Margaret Owen crafts a powerful saga of vengeance, survival, and sacrifice - perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Kendare Blake - in The Merciful Crow. One way or another, we always feed the crows.  

A future chieftain   

Fie abides by one rule: Look after your own. Her Crow caste of undertakers and mercy-killers takes more abuse than coin, but when they’re called to collect royal dead, she’s hoping they’ll find the payout of a lifetime.  

A fugitive prince   

When Crown Prince Jasimir turns out to have faked his death, Fie’s ready to cut her losses - and perhaps his throat. But he offers a wager that she can’t refuse: Protect him from a ruthless queen, and he’ll protect the Crows when he reigns.   

A too-cunning bodyguard   

Hawk warrior Tavin has always put Jas’ life before his, magically assuming the prince’s appearance and shadowing his every step. But what happens when Tavin begins to want something to call his own?

©2019 Margaret Owen (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Worth the read/listen

It did get really long in the middle of the book, I literally fell asleep for a few and didn’t even bother going back and don’t feel I missed anything

Definitely unique concept though that I wish was explained more , like how can people tell what caste someone is just by looking?

I also am not a fan of the immediate fall in love thing, but some people like that

Unique but a little slow

Overall a pleasure, truly interesting premise and characters, but pretty slow moving. Well written and narrated.

Amazing

This book is amazing. If your a fan of Six of Crows and/or The throne of glass books. highly recommend. July 2020 can't come quick enough. how dare you make me look forward to an election year.

I could with the narrator

I called it quits halfway through. I might try the paper copy. the world seems intriguing even though Fi the MC really annoys me at times.
it's the narrator that had me quitting in the end, her voice worked for the book "The Kingdom" because she played and andriod. I thought she had done the voice on purpose because of the character. nope apparently that's her voice.
here in this book I have trouble grasping the tone of the scene because it sounds like Siri is reading me a book.

Timely

In these times of pandemic and immigration conflict, this book is an interesting take on how we treat the "others" among us. Ultimately, we are one tribe, but historically we do so like to separate ourselves to justify our fear. I enjoyed this story, from the perspective of a character from the marginalized outcasts.

it's fine.

it wonderful world with a good story that just feels flat in places. I look forward to the next book.

Good book

The book was amazing but the narrator wasn’t that good. She said several words weird and was kinda deadpan all the way through. Still an amazing book though, recommended it to anyone.

really really good story

the story was really good, and the narrator does quite a good job with the male voices. i’ve had several audiobooks ruined by a narrator trying too hard (or not very hard at all) to get the genders right, especially with different ages. this narrator knocked it out of the park.

Different feeling from Little Thieves

I tried this book out because I liked Little Thieves so much. Unfortunately this felt a bit different.
Pretty trope heavy, repetitive in places, and the accents in the narration were awkward/ distracting/ seemed very forced. It’s not terrible (I finished it), but definitely preferred Little Thieves.

Compelling story, bad narrator

The world felt real and compelling, and the book was well-written. The world-building has holes you can drive a wagon through but somehow I liked the main character enough to enjoy the story regardless. The narrator was terrible. The ends of all the sentences went down in intonation and often had the last word totally distinct like “What do you think. Pa.” The narrator also chose a strange British accent for the characters, which there was no reason for as far as I could tell. At least for the most part the book felt like it took place somewhere hot and dry; I had assumed a more Western feel.